Battlestar: The “curse of Billy” strikes again

I don’t know if it was that my usual Friday routine was thrown off, that last week’s episode was still on my mind or that this episode was filled with sci-jargon, but I had a hard time getting into this one. Gaeta’s quirky ways are usually the sugar to make the jargon go down, but there wasn’t much of him here. It certainly didn’t help that I watched it Saturday afternoon, but for fans complaining about needing to move the story forward, this episode’s for you.

The food machines are making contaminated food and the fleet is on its last 7-10 days worth of food. The pilots are stuck splitting rations among themselves, even picking crumbs off tables and licking utensils for that last little scrap of food.

Sharon is sent looking for algae — it’s edible and a good source of protein. However, she has to go through intense radiation to get to the planet growing it. Adama and crew realize they can’t lead the fleet through the radiation, so they devise this plan that involved raptors leading civilian ships to the planet with a series of jumps back and forth. I got a little lost in the details, but as I said, I just wasn’t feeling it this week.

Meanwhile, on the Basestar, looks like the threesome wasn’t a one-time deal: D’Anna wakes up next to Baltar and Six again. Like us, Baltar wonders what she does all day. Six says she’s been “doing things.” Whatever these “things” are, they aren’t good. Later, Baltar confronts her about the “things” and accuses her of intentionally killing herself over and over again to keep downloading.

Kat runs into some mystery guy who calls her “Sasha.” She tells him that he and “Sasha” were in the past. He cryptically asks if they know the truth about her.

Our favorite Grumpy Gus, Col. Tigh, is back in uniform and making his way to the CIC. He hesitates at the door, but finally comes in to the room; Gaeta glares in his general direction while a few underlings applaud and welcome him back.

The raptors embark on the planned jumps. The pilots are wearing white badges that turn black as they are exposed to radiation. When the badge is completely black, they are supposed to take themselves out of the mission. The light is so blinding, they lose one civilian ship in the process and eventually have to stop because of the radiation exposure. They return to Galactica weak, weary and nauseated. Some technicolor yawning does take place.

Back at the Basestar: Baltar asks D’Anna if she sees the faces of the final five Cylon models when she resurrects. She wonders why he’s interested. He wants to know if he is a Cylon, i.e., if she has seen his face — if he is, he wouldn’t be a traitor to his people, but a hero (there’s that knack for self-preservation, again!). She can’t remember.

Starbuck sees a confrontation between Kat and the mystery man. Kara tracks him down, calling him by name: Enzo. Then, she gets Kat to tell her the truth. Kat took the name Louanne Katraine from a girl who died two days before the attack; it got her through the background check. She was a drug runner and Enzo was her supplier. She says she was just a trucker; she moved things, people. Starbuck replies that one theory suggests the Cylons started in the outer colonies and used criminals, i.e., people like Kat, to get onto Caprica. How does Kat know that she didn’t smuggle Cylons in? Kat begs Starbuck not to tell Adama, but to let her do it.

In Toasterland, Baltar and D’Anna are in the room with the Hybrid. Baltar sticks his hand in her tub of water and the Hybrid grabs his hand and starts spouting gibberish. Baltar believes maybe she isn’t completely nonsensical and then starts dissecting the various parts of her rantings. He thinks she is telling them a location … something about the Eye of Jupiter (it looks like this will make more sense next week, so stay tuned).

Kat’s in the locker room; her hair is falling out. She goes to see Enzo. She says he’s a thieving bastard, but the only thing she has; they make out. Back at her locker, she switches her black radiation badge for one that still has some white on it. I’m starting to feel the “curse of Billy” here: supporting character with more dialogue than usual and major character development equals death.

The pilots try the raptor plan again. The ships are getting too much damage and everybody’s ordered to come back. Kat ignores the order to find her assigned civilian ship. She eventually does, and both jump back to safety. Unfortunately, Kat is now on her second all-black radiation badge and barely makes it out of the raptor before collapsing on deck.

A very weak Kat wakes up in sick bay. She asks for Starbuck; she doesn’t want them to end that way. Kara leaves her enough sleeping pills to end it and tells Kat she’s not as bad as Kara said she was. Adama appears and tells Kat she’s promoting her to CAG. She says there is a reason he may not want to promote her, but he says he already knows enough about her skills and determination and anything else wouldn’t make a difference.

Next scene gives us Adama switching the nameplates of Kat and Lee on the org chart (which I paused on to check out the names listed — did we know Hot Dog’s name was Brendan Costanza?) while the pilots stand at attention. Flip to Starbuck placing Kat’s photo on the remembrance wall. R.I.P. Kat. Which begs the question: was she the “top 10” cast member scheduled to die this season? Hmmm … I’ll have to look into that one.